As treaties and trade agreements are implemented this year, more U.S. companies are looking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for fresh business opportunities. Fortunately, a whole host of logistics and transportation service providers are laying the groundwork to overcome inherent infrastructure challenges.

Today, U.S. trucking companies face more regulations than any time in history—and they claim this “regulatory tsunami” is putting the clamp on U.S. productivity. During this session shippers will gain a better understanding of the current state of trucking regulations (HOS & CSA) and the impact they're having on capacity and rates.

Con-way Freight, the less-than-truckload (LTL) subsidiary of freight transportation and logistics services provider Con-way, said this week that it has begun construction on a new service center in San Antonio, Texas.

The new location will be comprised of 105 doors, 41,500 square feet, and 30 acres and will serve as the local hub for daily freight pickup and delivery service, nightly re-ship operations connecting San Antonio with one-, two, and three-day service points in Con-way’s national network, and also as a gateway for goods moving to and from Mexico, according to company officials.

“San Antonio operates both as a regular pickup and delivery service center during the day and a reship center at night,” a Con-way spokesman told LM. “We adjust our line-haul network and how volumes move through the network on a regular basis. Given San Antonio’s geographic location and considering shipping patterns, reship volumes have been increasing through this location, requiring the need for a larger facility. Local business has been growing as well.”

When asked how this new location will benefit shippers, the spokesman explained that it will help to maintain consistent on-time service and reliable transit times. And he added that the larger facility will allow Con-way to handle and process increasing volumes of freight at this location more efficiently, ensuring adherence service standards and handling customer shipments in a claims-free manner.

And in terms of competitive advantages the new San Antonio service center offers, the spokesman said that it is a “larger facility better suited to volume needs,” which provides better flexibility for planning as well as efficient and productive reship operations.

Con-way officials said that this new service center will replace an existing 48-door service center in San Antonio that Con-way Freight has used for more than 20 years and staffs 104 employees. When the expansion is complete, more than 50 new jobs will be added in San Antonio for various positions, including driver sales representatives, operations support, and customer service.

Construction for the new service center is expected to be completed during the second half of 2011. Con-way said that while the new service center will have 105 doors, it will be equipped to house 160 doors and handle more than 1.5 million pounds of freight on a daily basis compared to its current level of 1 million pounds.

Con-way Freight currently operates a fleet of 45 commercial truck-tractors and 156 freight trailers in San Antonio, and it dispatches more than 40 professional driver-sales representatives providing daily freight and pick-up delivery services for more than 1,500 San Antonio-area businesses, according to company officials.

“This expanded facility is an important investment for our company, providing expanded capacity in a key location for our network, and giving us flexibility to grow with the San Antonio community,” said Neil Smith, area vice president of operations for Con-way Freight, in a statement.

About the Author

Jeff BermanGroup News Editor

Jeff Berman is Group News Editor for Logistics Management, Modern Materials Handling, and Supply Chain Management Review. Jeff works and lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where he covers all aspects of the supply chain, logistics, freight transportation, and materials handling sectors on a daily basis. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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